Cosmopolitanism Chapters 1-4

I have found Cosmopolitanism to be a very intriguing book. It started out really rough with all of the facts about Sir Richard Francis Burton and his many accomplishments. At first, I didn't see how they could connect to the point of the book in so many ways until we discussed it in class--Sir Burton had his biases. To learn from other cultures, you don't have to be unbiased, but simply be able to hold back your own judgement. Burton was very educated on several cultures, but didn't learn as much from others, like the Irish, which he claims he and his group were "pleasantly surprised to find an utter absence of" (7) upon reaching the 'Thirty-two-mile creek.' Even after reading the first four chapters for the second time, I still didn't understand the level of thinking that was required of me until we had another discussion.
Since this book is so "thick," here are some of my questions and ideas.

In class we discussed the concept of biases and how they affect what we learn from other societies. If we do not sustain our judgements of another culture, we won't be able to learn about what separates it from our own. When picking our SL groups, we had to choose where to go, and what place to learn about, therefore giving up the opportunity to learn from other places while in class. In Bafa Bafa, while the culture-swap was going on, we immediately assumed that it would be difficult to be initiated into the other culture. This made it a lot harder to learn from them, because we were concerned with our own beliefs about "fitting in." We had assumptions (prejudgements) to start out with that shaped our beliefs and made it harder to communicate with each other. We have to learn to stand back and be patient and observant.

How can we have common unwritten rules of society? How can we not break those rules if we find them harmless? (Like dressing a certain way). I think, as mentioned in class, it has to do with the fact that we humans have power over each others' mentalities and can influence one another just by the power of words, as well as our similar values.

p.27 "But to understand how values work, you must see them not as guiding us as individuals on our own but as guiding people who are trying to share their lives."

-This kind of goes back to the value of "Family time" in the Kiseki video. Some members valued family time more than others, and therefore, the kids stayed out with their friends longer.

We humans, having created our own language system, can count on nothing but our own concepts to describe the physical world. There are no answers that we can find. We look back on our descriptive words, which are unique for many cultures, and try to understand each other and the world. But what we are understanding is our own behavior and not the truth of things.

I think it's likely to be impossible to grasp the entirety of another culture without being born into it. You may have the same basic feelings, but what about how the feelings of people in other cultures have been influenced by people in their own societies and how their perception of their own society been shaped? It would be very difficult to replicate the natural "feelings" of the people in certain unique areas.

How can we explain each others' individual personalities? Scientists have claimed that our likes and dislikes depend on what we see up until the age of twelve or thirteen. What do you guys think? Is it society or an inbred sense of self that defines a personality?

Not sure that had much to do with the book, but oh, well...

~LandRe